Reps tell Buhari to offer Gambian president asylum

As part of efforts to end the political instability in Gambia, the House of Representatives has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to extend Nigerias readiness to offer President

This was how the Green Chamber arrived as this decision.

Sani Zorro, moved a motion entitled: "Call to offer a Safe Haven to President Yahya Jammeh as part of Nigeria’s Mediation Initiative for the Gambia" on the floor of the House on Thursday, January 12, 2016.

Zoro based his argument on Nigeria’s policy of "extending safe-haven status to endangered African leaders as part of dispute settlement."

The Jigawa state legislator maintained that if the situation in the Gambia is not curtailed, the country would be heading for destruction.

The federal lawmaker who feels Nigeria should play the big brother role to the Gambia says the offer of asylum would save the nation's democracy and West Africa on a larger scale.

Zoro puts it this way:

"The clock is ticking fast for the survival of democracy in the country and there is therefore the need to intensify preventive diplomacy to save the Gambia from descending into chaos with dire consequences for the west African sub-region, as a result of a likely armed conflict and mass displacement of persons."

The motion was adopted after it was put to a voice vote by Speaker Yakubu Dogara.

But Jammeh had stopped a high level ECOWAS mediation team led by President Buhari from coming to the Gambia on Wednesday, January 11, as planned.

The delegation was expected to persuade Jammeh to accept defeat in the December 1 presidential election in the country.

Meanwhile, reports have it that the Nigerian Army is ready to forcefully remove Jammeh from office if he insists on remaining in power as he has vowed.

The battalion has reportedly been named and is made up of soldiers from the Army’s 19th Battalion in Okitipupa, Ondo State.